Times gone by

It’s that time of year when the changing digit demands we take a look back—and a look forward. We are forced by advancing time to remember those who impacted our lives and made 2007 anything but boring, either through their presence or by their absence.

In years past, we’ve culled the year’s doings, looking for the events, celebrations and disasters that occupied our minds, hearts and souls for the past 365 days, and then we’d put the amalgam on the cover. Inevitably, it would be among the issues to generate the least public interest and discussion. This would seem an easily explained phenomenon; by definition that sort of story is old news. And yet, here we sit with that auld lang syne feeling, as the dreary winter rain on the valley floor indicates a bonanza piling on the peaks. That old news, remembering the past, is how we as a newspaper and we as a culture move forward from what we were last week, last year, last century.

It’s bittersweet, isn’t it? Every time we turn the page on a waterboarding story, we hope we’ve seen the last clue that suggests we—we the people who only want to go to work, raise our children, catch a buzz on Friday night or a football game on Saturday afternoon, or comfort our maturing parents—condone torture. Every time we see a story about how great the national economy is, we have to look at the age of the For Sale signs on our block, hoping against hope that a corner has been turned. Every time we read yet another article about an elected official who used the power of his office to stroke his crippled and secret sexual corruption, we sadly place that day’s news in the recycling bin, praying for respite from perverted power.

Sometimes it’s more bitter than bittersweet.

And yet, most of the news in our lives is good. Our sons and daughters have made it home from school again, telling tales of triumph: of facts learned, grades earned, a project birthed just as imagined. And at work, somehow we just keep advancing; yes, that raise was only 3 percent, but at least it was 3 percent. Sometimes, just the fact we kept our jobs despite the fact we missed that big account, added too much sand to the mortar, or blew off work for a personal appointment is enough to make us feel like things are going to turn out OK. Other times, just the fact that a loved one came home from the hospital is all the good news we need.

So, Reno, Sparks and Northern Nevada, this year as you’re raising your glasses in recognition of all the things that made 2007 a year to forget, spend a moment appreciating all the things that made 2007 unforgettable. And if you have a moment between sips of champagne and shots of Jagermeister, give a thought to all the great news you’ll receive in 2008.

Happy New Year from all of us at the Reno News & Review. Cheers.